Dan Brown can't stop -- and won't stop -- writing page-turners about Professor Robert Langdon's weird, semi-religious adventures. Brown's latest novel, "Inferno," a bestseller since its release in mid-May, will be Sony's next film in its Langdon series, with Tom Hanks returning as the tweedy professor who can't seem to shake his obsession with mythology and secrets. Ron Howard is once again attached to direct.

"Inferno" takes Langdon to Florence, Italy, where he and Sienna Brooks find themselves embroiled in a conspiracy that manages to incorporate Dante, bioterrorism, and the Hagia Sophia into one roiling thriller.

Sony owns the rights to all Langdon-related projects, and "Inferno" will be the studio's third movie in the series. The Howard-directed franchise kicked off with 2006's "The Da Vinci Code," which was followed up by "Angels & Demons." David Koepp, who wrote "Angels & Demons," "Mission: Impossible," and "Jurassic Park," is on board to write the script for "Inferno."

Brown's third novel, "The Lost Symbol," has been in development limbo for a few years, but for whatever reason, the studio has decided to skip it in favor of "Inferno" -- at least for now. Given that "Angels & Demons" was actually published before "The Da Vinci Code," there's always a chance we'll see "The Lost Symbol" eventually. Then again, Dan Brown might already have 10 more Langdon thrillers in the can by then.